Findlay Thorburn joined up with p7 pupils from Kirkcolm to form a partnership curling team to take part in the inter school end of season tournament on Monday 6th March.
Findlay has been going along to the after school sessions at the North West Castle with Scott from Kirkcolm. Findlay was skipping the team of four.
In the first game they drew with Rephad and then went on to be beaten by Sheuchan. Findlay played a great last stone in the final end to claw back a one.
It was a great experience for them all and allowed the Primary 7 pupils to get to know each other a bit more, prior to moving on to Stranraer Academy.
Primary 1-3 pupils had a taster session of rugby this afternoon with Mr Harbottle, who kindly volunteered to deliver this. They were learning how to handle a rugby ball given it’s different shape and how it moves, and participated in various games to help them learn how to do this.
Have a keek at Mrs Wither’s photos below to see all the fun they had!
The whole school were book worms today to celebrate World Book Day. There were many activities that the children participated in.
Alba & Izzy organised a second hand book sale as part of their library monitor responsibilities. The children had the opportunity to recycle and reuse by purchasing old book stock for the princely sum of 20p per title. P1-7 enjoyed. We raised £22, which equates to over 100 books purchased for our little school.
Ready to sell
Roaring trade
What will I choose?
Grab a bargain
Happy with our purchases
All of the children participated in DEAR – Drop Everything and Read. Everyone signed on to their new MyOn online reading accounts and enjoyed reading at least one book. We collectively read 1940 pages in 93 books. Our top three genre selections were longer books, adventure and sports.
P4-7 then took part in ‘Bookbusters’, a retro-style quiz based on the old TV series Blockbusters. The class split into two teams (blue and red) and answered questions on famous books by the letter of their title. The winners were the ones to first reach the other side of the board in a linked chain.
Bookbusters
The activities moved on to the children designing their own book cover for their favourite book. This is due in tomorrow, so there is still time to polish the artwork before the winner is judged.
Finally, P4-7 had the challenge of writing the best book review in the class. Children can bring their completed entries to school tomorrow. The winner will receive a copy of ‘The Wimpy Kid Do-It-Yourself Book‘ to create their own memoirs for when they are famous.
We were thoroughly entertained on Wednesday morning by 4Front Theatre, who brought their wonderful performance of ‘A Fisherman’s Tail’ to Portpatrick Primary. The pupils sat engrossed for almost an hour as they listened to the story of 4 fishermen (James, John, Andrew and Simon) who were competing to catch the biggest fish on the Sea of Galilee, when Jesus appeared. The fishermen became Jesus’ disciples, and the story went on to tell of the miracles of Jesus, right up to his crucifixion.
The performance was full of songs that got the pupils clapping along, and some very funny scenes that had them all roaring with laughter.
A huge thanks must go to the Baptist Church and Scripture Union who made this wonderful experience possible. It was a very enjoyable RME lesson, teaching pupils about some of the key messages of Christianity in a fun and engaging way.
As part of our ongoing Eco Schools work, the Eco committee are planning on running a gardening club after the Easter break. However we were given some tomato seeds which needed to be planted now – so the boys and girls rolled up their sleeves on Wednesday morning and got planting, kindly aided by Sian who volunteered to come in and help. Every pupil in the school now has a pot of tomato seeds to care for over the coming weeks. We will be keeping a close eye on them to ensure they grow and develop!
P4-7 took part in a science workshop event organised and delivered by S6 Stranraer Academy STEM Ambassadors Lilly and Emma.
The young ladies delivered a carousel of four activities. First up, the children used their sense of smell to determine whether the could smell as well as a shark. The pupils had to sniff vials of varying strengths of water/perfume from zero, 20ppm, 200ppm and 100ppm. They then ranked them in order of weakest to strongest. Robin and Alfie were in full-on shark mode, getting the vials in the correct order.
samples to sniff
What strength is it?
Next up, the pupil had the very enjoyable activity of making slime like a slug. A simple mixture of cornflour and water was produced. The children explored the properties of this substance. The mixture flowed, but became stiff when squeezed or pushed by a spoon. We learned that this is an oobleck mixture that becomes more viscous when pressure is applied. This is beneficial to a slug as the creature can apply different pressure points with its foot to both slide and anchor in place.
Mix cornflour to a thick paste
Exploring properties
Try stirring – it’s not easy!
Following that activity, the pupils engaged in a brain challenge. They were presented with colour words written in a non-matching colour e.g. the word pink written in green pen. The children had to try and say the colour word and not the colour it was written in. It was a bit of a brain tease. Most people find it easier to say the word rather than the colour as the word has a strong influence on the brain. Words are read faster by the brain than colours are named. If you would like to find out more about this challenge, it is called a Stroop test.
Colour Word or Colour Shown?
The final activity was testing our peripheral vision. The boys and girls attached string to a protractor to create an arc with which to rotate an object into our field of view. We were using our rod cells to sense objects. There are fewer rod cells at the periphery of our retina. Hence, why we could not determine what the object was until it was more directly in front of us.
Lilly and Emma demonstrate
What’s the point for visibility?
Can you see it yet?
To bring the session to a close the STEM Ambassadors elicited the pupils’ thinking on the science behind each activity. The children explained what they had learned by carrying out the practical activities.
Thank you to Lilly and Emma for a great learning experience!
The whole school enjoyed celebrating Shrove Tuesday today. The children have been learning about this practice as part of our RME topics on Easter and Lent.
In P4-7, we applied HOTS creating skills by designing a range of topping choices for our pancakes: 1 healthy, 1 indulgent and the one they actually produced.
As P4-7 are also learning about fractions in maths this term, we applied this in context to engage with the recipe at differentiated levels. We did the following:
Halved the recipe ingredients to make a lesser quantity of pancake batter
Worked out the fraction of a litre we used for 200ml of milk (1/5th)
Worked out what fraction of a kilogram we used for 100g of flour (1/10th)
Converted between improper and mixed fractions i.e. when we added five, 1/4 teaspoons of sugar to our mixture. We calculated that this equates to 5/4 as an improper fraction and 1 whole + 1/4 as a mixed fraction.
P1-3 focussed on using and applying instructions as part of following recipes. The children used their maths skills to measure and weigh the correct amount of each ingredient to make the batter mix. The activity was followed up by creating and/or organising the correct sequenced steps for a pancake recipe. The boys and girls then had a mock pancake race for PE using beanbags and racquetes.
As part of estimating and measure, the class measured out 15 metres in the hall to visualise the circumference of the biggest pancake ever made. Everyone agreed it would have taken some eating!
Throughout the food technologies activity, all the boys and girls worked safely and hygienically to cook their individual pancakes before selecting their toppings to enjoy as a tasty snack.
Our P4-7 pupils carried out an interactive survey of their practices and attitudes to online activities. The children were asked a range of questions on their online habits. This was anonymous and conducted through a computer voting system not requiring any login details.
As per national trends, the results demonstrate to how our young people are engaging with social media and online devices.
Have a look at the video to view the results. The footage can be paused on each slide to allow you to digest the information displayed.
We are using these results to have a conversation on how to use online media safely and responsibly.
The class also undertook a class discussion quiz that focussed on how consent works in an online context. We explored how young people ask for, give and receive consent online. This covered aspects such as friendships or relationships, how they take and share images and videos or how they manage their privacy and data.
As part of Safer Internet Day (SID)2020, we would like to highlight available support and advice information for parents and carers that may be of interest to you. A great source for family home resources and information is the SID website link, as shown below:
The site contains a wide range of materials that can be used to talk to your child about online safety this Safer Internet Day. This includes activities, conversation starters and information to help parents and carers talk to their children about how to navigate the issue of online identity in a digital age in a safe, responsible and respectful way.
Attached is a sample Family Internet Safety Planner that allows you to formulate your own approach to internet safety in your home environment. There is also a resource sheet detailing links to further sources of information. Both are downloadable directly from this blog or from the website above.
Why not use the prompts shown in the image (click to enlarge), and below, to see how you can start a conversation with your child using the top 5 tips to keep our young people safe online. :
Our internet, our choice, so…
Choose to have a conversation
Talk regularly with your child about how they use technology, and find out what their digital life is like, including what their favourite sites and services are and also how being online makes them feel. Listening to your child will give you the best possible idea of how you can support them. Not sure where to begin? Have a look at our suggested conversation starters for parents.
Choose to take a balanced approach
As parents it’s natural to feel worried about the risks posed by your child being online, but for young people the online world is exciting and fun, as it brings so many opportunities for them. Remember that your child will use technology and the internet differently given that they are growing up in a world immersed in all things digital. Try to look at both the positive and negative aspects of being online and empower your child with safe choices they can make instead of overwhelming them with restrictions.
It can sometimes feel like young people are the experts in all things digital but remember – you are the life experts. You are always there to help your child but make sure you know how to get support too by visiting our Need Help? page. You can take steps to support your child online by using features such as privacy settings on social media and understanding how to make a report on a range of apps, games and services.
Choose to be current and topical
This Safer Internet Day focuses on the very relevant topic of consent in the digital world. Use this as an opportunity to support your child with how they tackle digital consent within relationships and friendships as well as how online services use the data we provide. Use our quick activities as a family this Safer Internet Day to help you unpick this topic together.
Throughout January, the boys and girls have been busy with some Scots challenges – they had to learn their Scots poem and practise reciting it with great gusto; write out their poem in their best handwriting; and create a piece of artwork linked to their poem.
On Tuesday, Mr John Ross had the difficult and unenviable task of judging the competition – we had a few joint winners, he just couldn’t choose!!
Lots of parents, family members and friends of the school then joined us on Wednesday for our Scot Showcase assembly, to celebrate the pupils’ successes. They were presented with certificates and entertained the audience with recitals and some Scots songs.
A huge well done to all the pupils for their efforts. Below is a list of the winners:
Recitation winners
P.1 Ode tae a spider
1st Rebecca Connor 2nd Stephen Ross
P.2 Twa Leggit Mice
1st Carter Henderson 2nd equal Louise Webb & Erin Harbottle
Glow Blogs uses cookies to enhance your experience on our service. By using this service or
closing this message you consent to our use of those cookies. Please read our Cookie Policy.
